Conditioning personal care compositions comprising various combinations of detersive surfactant and hair conditioning agents are known. These personal care products typically comprise an anionic detersive surfactant in combination with a conditioning agent such as silicone, hydrocarbon oil, fatty esters, or combinations thereof. These personal care compositions have become more popular among consumers as a means of conveniently obtaining hair conditioning and hair cleansing performance all from a single hair care product.
Many personal care compositions, however, do not provide sufficient deposition of conditioning agents onto hair or skin during application. Obtaining good deposition of a conditioning agent onto hair is complicated by the action of detersive surfactants in the personal care composition. Detersive surfactants are designed to carry away or remove, oil, grease, dirt, and particulate matter from the hair and scalp. In doing so, the detersive surfactants can also interfere with deposition of the conditioning agent, and carry away both deposited and non deposited conditioning agent during rinsing. This reduces deposition of the conditioning agent onto the hair after rinsing, thus reducing hair conditioning performance. Without sufficient deposition of the conditioning agent on the hair, relatively high levels of conditioning agents may be needed in the personal care composition to provide adequate hair conditioning performance. Such high levels of a conditioning agent, however, can increase raw material costs, reduce lathering, and present product stability concerns.
One known method for improving deposition of a hair conditioning agent onto hair involves the use of certain cationic polymers. Such cationic polymers may form coacervate phases which aid deposition of conditioning agents and provide good wet hair conditioning benefits such as wet hair feel, detangling, and wet combing ease.
One class of cationic polymers comprises high charge density polymers which form a lyotropic liquid crystal coacervate in the presence of an anionic surfactant. Such polymers are characterized by excellent wet combing benefits when used in shampoo compositions, even in the absence of secondary conditioning agents. When conditioning agents are used, liquid crystal coacervates aid in deposition of large particle size silicone to skin and hair. However, liquid crystal forming polymers do not provide an extended soft wet conditioning and feel throughout the rinse process—as would be expected by a consumer from a desirable conditioning shampoo.
Another class of cationic polymers comprises low charge density cationic polymers which form isotropic coacervates upon dilution of the personal care composition with water. They are often characterized by their favorable wet conditioning and feel, even in the absence of conditioning agents. When conditioning agents are used, isotropic coacervates have been found to aid deposition of small particle size silicone, to skin and hair. However, such low charge density cationic polymers lack the level of wet combing benefit delivered by lyotropic liquid crystal coacervate forming cationic polymers.
Furthermore, formulation of compositions comprising both lyotropic liquid crystal coacervate and isotropic coacervate has been, thus far, unsuccessful. Previous attempts to formulate such compositions have resulted in the destruction of one, or both, of the coacervate phases upon combination.
Based on the foregoing, there still exists a need for a personal care composition with both excellent wet conditioning and wet combing benefits.